The astronauts who were aboard the Artemis II have arrived back home in Texas.
They were welcomed by huge applause at an onstage speaking reception at Ellington Field in Houston, while one astronaut thanked God and others thanked taxpayers, NASA and President Donald Trump for putting America back on track to go to the moon.
The astronauts also celebrated their colleagues who are assigned to the next Moon mission, the Artemis III set for 2027, expected to be a full Moon landing mission.
The Artemis II astronauts who returned to Earth from space yesterday were tasked with circling the Moon, gathering information and charting portions of the Moon for use in future space missions.
Speaking to an enthusiastic audience Saturday afternoon at the Houston airport’s auditorium, astronaut Victor Glover said in breathless tones, “When this started on April 3rd I wanted to thank God in public, and I want to thank God again because even bigger than the challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude for seeing what we saw, doing what we did and being who I was with — it’s just too big to be in one body.”
And astronaut Reid Wiseman also expressed gratitude for the mission and then addressed the crew of the next mission, who were seated in the audience, with a symbolic passing of the torch:
“Looking at you and knowing the fortitude that you have and seeing the direction that this agency is going in right now, we would be remiss if the four of us didn’t look right [at you] and say it is time to go, and be ready, ’cause it takes courage and it takes determination and you all are freakin’ going and we are going to be standing there supporting you every single step of the way in every way possible.”